Dell has appointed Micro Peripherals (Micro-P) to carry its imaging products, just two months after all but ruling out the need for UK distribution partners.

Speaking to CRN TV in July, Josh Claman, vice president of EMEA channels at Dell, stressed that a two-tier model would not be necessary for a market as advanced as the UK.

“I think you will see some experimentation when it comes to countries where Dell does not have a strong share but in the UK we do have a strong share and the Dell direct model has been very powerful,” Claman said at the time.

“We have the largest channel in the UK from our starting point so everything is encouraging. But I do not think we really need to go to a distribution model.”

The appointment comes six months after the launch of PartnerDirect, which marked the formerly direct-selling vendor’s entry into the channel. Dell has since registered more than 10,000 resellers to PartnerDirect across EMEA and is in the process of accrediting top-tier Certified partners.

A representative for Micro-P said the U-turn would be a major coup for the distributor.

Mark Kahr, Micro-P’s vendor and marketing director, added in a statement: “Bringing Dell Imaging onboard is a key strategic move to strengthen our corporate business to business offering. Here at Micro-P we are capable of growing our market share in the channel from a standing start giving our customers a solid product offering.”

A Dell representative told CRN it would continue to work with distribution where it saw there was added value.